1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic mail systems, and more specifically, to a method and system for customizing e-mail transmissions by prompting a user based on content of an electronic message.
2. Background of the Invention
Present-day network systems communicate through a variety of channels in order to interconnect computers. Electronic mail is in widespread use as a mechanism for communicating messages and for transferring documents, images and other media such as sound files.
E-mail programs and other programs such as Internet browsers having e-mail capability permit a computer user to create a message that is sent to an e-mail server for the recipient of the message. Typical e-mail programs provide a variety of features for customizing an e-mail message. For example, attachment lists permit the computer user to attach documents such as word-processor output files, encoded images such as scanned photographs that are rendered in a data storage format such as the joint photography and electronics group (JPEG) format and other media such as sound files. E-mail programs also permit the setting of priority level so that a recipient may be notified of the urgency of a message without reading the content and/or flagging an e-mail message as personal, private or confidential. Further, the above-described e-mail programs permit copying (cc:) and blind-copying (bcc:) additional intended recipients of an e-mail message, adding an electronic signature, and/or encrypting e-mail content for security.
Often, a computer user generating an electronic mail message will intend to customize an e-mail message, but forget some or all of their intended customizations.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and system for customizing an e-mail transmission by using information contained within the e-mail message to prompt the user to customize the message.